The S&P 500 spent almost the entire day in negative territory but rallied at the close to end the day basically flat. Trading volume was up today, so while it may not qualify as a strong bullish day, the end of the day recovery is encouraging. SPX closed unchanged at $1291 and RUT closed up less than a dollar at $780. Trading volume in the S&P 500 rose to 3.8 billion shares and increased 12% on the NYSE. Volume was up 2% on NASDAQ. The Consumer Confidence Index of the Conference Board hit an eight month high of 60.6 in January, up from 53.3 in December. The Case Schiller Housing Price Index dropped 1.6% in November after a 0.5% drop the previous month. The FOMC meeting started today; their statement will be released tomorrow afternoon but most analysts don't expect any substantive changes.

I was encouraged this morning as AAPL, IBM and GOOG all traded upward while the overall market was trading downward. That behavior, coupled with the late day recovery is encouraging, but it still pays to be cautious. Employ good risk management.

My Feb iron condor on RUT continues to be well positioned with a P/L of +$2,520, delta = +$7 and theta = +$61.